They Grow Up Too Fast

I love the country song Don't Blink by Kenny Chesney.  There's a line in it that says "Don't blink, you just might miss your babies growing like mine did".  I'm finding that's true.

On July 11, my oldest will be four.  Four! That's how long I was in high school, that's how long my husband and I were married before we got pregnant with him! Of course he thinks he's grown.  I don't know how many times a day I hear "I'll do it myself", or "I'm a big boy".  He no longer needs pull-ups during the day, he's in a grown up bed, he drinks out of grown up cups, and now he thinks he can wipe his own little bottom. (That didn't turn out to good by the way).  I love seeing him grow up and learning how to do things, watching his mind figure things out.  But at the same time I realize he used to need me for these little things and now he doesn't.  In another year he'll be starting kindergarten! That's a day I'm not looking forward to.  We drive by the elementary school whenever we leave the house and I see all those little kids out there playing and I just know once he's turned loose in those kids I'll never see him again!  Connor's excited about going to school, he can't wait.  But I think that's because every time we drive by the school, he sees the kids out on the playground, so to him that's what school is, playing.

On June 22, my youngest will be one.  A whole year has gone by and it's felt like a few weeks.  In the past twelve months Kenny has learned how to smile, babble, grab, laugh, crawl, feed himself, hold his own drink, clap, put things in buckets, and now walking.  Last night I was putting sheets on Connor's bed.  I turned around to tuck them in at the bottom and Kenny was on his feet just booking it across the floor.  I counted about five quick steps before he lost his balance, fell and started clapping.  He was so proud of himself! I helped him back to his feet and took another four steps.  It won't be much longer before he's running around with Connor.








It seems that in a few short more weeks, they'll both be in school, then they'll be teenagers, then they'll be in college and adults and have their own lives.  But I'll always be their momma.  I know from experience you never get passed needing your mother.  My husband and I both still need out mom's.  So I'll always be here for them whenever they need anything.  But I wish sometimes I could slow down time and enjoy them being little just a little bit longer.

The Escape of the Keys

I know that there is rarely an easy day where everything goes perfectly and smoothly.  But do some days really have to be so stupid?  And why can't your brain just recall whatever you want it to?  Our brains remember everything we ever hear, read, and see.  We just don't have the recall capability.

I woke up this morning tired.  I really didn't want to get out of bed, but the kids are always up no later than 6:30am.  I wasted a lot of the morning sitting on the couch, trying to talk myself into getting up and getting something done.  It wasn't going very well.  I was just about resigned to spending the day on the couch until Kenny started wailing from their room.  The worst case scenario sprang to mind: He hurt bad, there'll be blood, broken bones, missing teeth he just grew in.  I get back there and Kenny's just sitting in the floor crying.  Connor has destroyed their room with toys.  So after I get Kenny calmed down I figure I might as well stay up on my feet to get some things done.

I go get dressed and start picking up each room.  I'm going along fine, watching the clock because nap time has to be right around the corner.  I make it to the kitchen.  There's a check laying there that I know I better put in my wallet to deposit in the bank tomorrow.  So, like always I open the back pocket of my wallet and put the check in.  In the back pocket of my wallet I keep extra keys.  But they've in there so long I can't remember what they fit.  So I thought, "I'll get my keys and compare them.  I'll know what these go to if they match any of the keys on my key ring." that's where my trouble started.

We keep a key hook in the laundry room.  It's really in a dumb place.  It hangs on the wall right over the garbage can.  When I go to get my keys, they're not there.  Okay, if they aren't on the hook, they have to be in the diaper bag.  I checked that diaper bag three times.  Then I dumped everything out and came just short of tearing the lining out, convinced those keys HAD to be in there.  They weren't.  My  darling hubby is always fussing at me to always hang them back up so I thought maybe he hid them to 'teach me a lesson'.  (He's did that with something else....once)  I called him to ask and he said he hadn't seen them.  Of course I got the speech on how if I would just hang them up every time I wouldn't be trying to find them now.

I go through my purse, I go through pants pockets, I go through the kids toy boxes, I look under my bed.  I called Wal-Mart to see if anyone had turned in lost keys, I texted my preacher's wife to see if I had left them at the church, I called my mom to see if they were at her house, I walked over to my mother in laws to see if they were there, I searched the car, the grass around the back porch, I backed the car up to see if they were under it, I even looked inside the shoes that sit in the laundry room.  Nothing.  They were just gone.  I just know if my keys could talk they would've been laughing at me, mocking me.  I wonder if Kenny ate them, since he seems to eat anything he can get his hands on.  I wonder if Connor flushed them like he did my MP3 player that one time.  And of course the whole time I'm looking for them Connor and Kenny are right underneath me.  Connors want to play a game, then he wants a drink, then he wants a snack, then he's had an accident in his undies, then he wants to go outside and catch bugs.  Kenny just wants to be held.

Then an awful thought hit me.  What if they had fallen off the hook and into the garbage that my husband had just sacked up and taken out to the big can last night.  I really didn't want to have to dig through the trash.

Well, by this time it was lunch.  I'm fixing lunch for the kids, thinking of any other place they might could be before going through the trash.  And while I'm pouring Connor some tea, I happened to remember that I had dropped some keys into the little bag I keep my Bible in when I go to church on Sundays.  I went to look and there they were! I was so happy at not having to go through the trash I was dancing around in the living room with Connor giving me a thumbs up and telling what a good job I had done!

So my keys are safely hung back up....over the garbage can. We really need to find a new place for the garbage can, or the key hook.  It's amazing how one discovery (keys being missing) can really throw your day out of whack.  I still feel befuddled.  Of course that could be Connor in there saying "Mario Galaxy" over and over and Kenny turning the DVD player on, which turns Connor's game off, which makes Connor fuss, which make Kenny laugh.  So yeah.  If my biggest accomplishment today is that I found my house keys, I'm good with that.